Navigating the Funding Maze – Carer Adjustment Payment

Welcome to the ninth installment of Navigating the Funding Maze. Today I hope to give alittle more insight into the Carer Adjustment Payment. I hope that this will be useful information.

This is one I am in the process of applying for. I will update this posts with the results of my application.

What is the Carer Adjustment Payment?

The Carer Adjustment Payment is to assit families with additional costs during their adjustment period immediately after a catastrophic event involving a young child.

Who is eligible?

Carer Adjustment Payment is a one-off, non-taxable payment to help families to adjust following a catastrophic event when a child aged 0–6 years is diagnosed with a severe illness, medical condition or a major disability.

You may be eligible to receive Carer Adjustment Payment if:

following the catastrophic event, you need to care for the child full-time for a minimum of 2 months, and

Hi .. Sorry it appears my comment has gone missing. It is funny that you ask. At the beginning of the month I called up asking Centrelink about my application. I was advised when I submitted it that it should take 6 weeks. They took my details and later that day someone called me back. I was fortunate that this was 1 of only 2 people who administered (and therefore understood) the payment in Centrelink. She told me that the application process was only administered and paid by Centrelink and it involved approval from a board of people … and that most applications took 12-14 weeks. As we had just past 12 weeks our should receive notification within the next 2 weeks. And true to her word we did … we were unsuccessful. Not because anything in our file that suggested that our son had not experienced a ‘traumatic event’ … or that we failed on any other criteria but one … financial. Not happy but I knew that this was a punt. To me this is just one more rejection from the government in its obligation to providing meaningful assistance to my son in overcoming his Autism.

My thoughts … is it worth applying? I would suggest that it is. Yes there is alot of paperwork to fill out but by the time you get to this one you should be an expert and most of the supporting documents you probably have already scanned and ready to go. Will you be more successful than me? I don’t know … but unless you submit the application you will never know. You might have better luck.

Hi everyone,
Just letting you know we were successful getting the CAP for my daughter with Aspergers. Received a ph call after about 2 1/2 weeks to say it was going tp be paid thenext day.. So happy. Def worth applying for. We received $6000 + of the possible $10000. Will def be put to good use.